Mike Ditka

Mike Ditka coached the Bears to their only Super Bowl championship during the 1985 season, a 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots in New Orleans on Jan. 26, 1986. A standout tight end and defensive lineman at the University of Pittsburgh, he was a first-round draft pick by the Bears in 1961. Ditka revolutionized the position of tight end with his pass-catching ability and helped lead the Bears to the 1963 championship, but he clashed with Bears owner and coach George Halas. He was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1967 and finished his career with the Dallas Cowboys. He was named coach of the Bears in 1982 and finished 3-6 in the strike-shortened season. Ditka led the Bears to Super Bowl XX after a 15-1 regular season. Ditka was fired after the 1992 season and went on to coach the New Orleans Saints for three years. He was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986 and the NFL Hall of Fame in 1988. Ditka is also known for his work with NFL veterans, a string of commercials, his mustache and a co-starring turn in the film "Kicking and Screaming."

Related "Mike Ditka" Articles

When news spread late last month that Mike Ditka was recovering from a “mild” heart attack, Bears fans chalked it up to the iconic coach remaining undefeated against health scares.
At age 49, Ditka suffered a minor heart attack after a routine workout at...

Ditka’s, a restaurant adjacent to Arlington International Racecourse that’s named after former Bears player and coach Mike Ditka, is expected to close in the coming weeks, an Arlington Heights village official said Friday.
Michael Mertes, the village’s...

Mike Ditka has been released from a hospital after he was treated for a mild heart attack last week.
A source said the iconic former Bears coach is home and doing well.
Ditka previously suffered a heart attack Nov 2, 1988, and famously returned to the...

Mike Ditka was hospitalized Wednesday in Florida because of a heart ailment, according to reports by the Chicago Sun-Times and WGN-9.
The iconic former Bears coach suffered a heart attack, WGN reported, citing anonymous sources. Ditka reportedly is...

Mike Krzyzewski and Mike Ditka. Two Hall of Famers. Two legendary coaches with Chicago ties.
Krzyzewski and Ditka spoke recently with Coach K interviewing Da Coach for his SiriusXM show. In an episode of “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K” that aired...

The only thing missing was Mitch Trubisky forming a zero with his fingers and snapping at the camera man, “That’s your IQ, buddy. Zero!”
The Bears quarterback went full-on Mike Ditka as he arrived at Soldier Field before Sunday’s game against the...

10 thoughts after the Bears had a cozy 20-0 lead until the latter stages of the third quarter and wound up losing the season opener and debut for head coach Matt Nagy 24-23 to the rival Packers on Sunday night at Lambeau Field.
1. There are some...

They liked to carouse at the Cottage, a hangout on Clark Street in the 1960s that attracted the biggest names Chicago sports had to offer.
Mike Ditka and Stan Mikita, two of the city’s toughest professional athletes ever, developed a soft spot for each...

What have they done with Jim Harbaugh? And can we please have him back?
The Harbaugh who showed up Monday to Big Ten media days was muted. He was rational and drab. These are the qualities you might want in a brother-in-law.
I want Harbaugh to be JIM...

Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka is helping out a now-shuttered northwestern Indiana college that once hosted the Bears' preseason camps.
Ditka will be the featured speaker at a June 9 fundraiser benefiting the renovation of a former St. Joseph's...

Tom Benson, a successful auto dealer who brought the New Orleans Saints their only winning seasons and the "Benson Boogie," has died. Benson, who has also owned the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans since 2012, was 90.
The NFL and NBA teams announced Benson's...

Mike Ditka has been the spokesperson for products ranging from antifreeze to Vienna beef sausages in his almost 30 years as a paid pitch man. Here's a look back at some of those print and television advertisements.
What types of things...

And so … the new guy. Another clay pigeon at the carnival.
Is this the guy, or just another guy? This guy with a one-ply resume and a three-day beard? Is this the guy who can make a gawd-awful football team into a mediocre one?
Generously, the tenure of...

Twenty-one player signatures were affixed at the end of a letter Gary Fencik wrote to Bears owner George Halas on Dec. 9, 1981, imploring him to retain Buddy Ryan and the defensive coaching staff in the midst of what the players figured would be...

I figured there was nothing more to know about the 1985 Chicago Bears championship team because, heck, it's been 32 years since their historic heyday.
I figured wrong.
Earlier this month, when I was sent a media sneak peek of the new documentary film,...

During his introductory news conference this week, new Bears coach Matt Nagy was asked if he knew much about the team’s vaunted history.
Nagy mentioned the 1985 Bears’ rout of the Patriots as one of his first Super Bowl memories but seemed relieved when...

If there was a sense of deja blue and orange to Tuesday’s formal presentation of new Bears head coach Matt Nagy, that’s because this football team and its fans have been through this before.
Ten times before, to be precise, in just the 50 years since...

Back when Matt Nagy’s job involved selling real estate instead of gaining ground, he left the same impression on people.
“What I remember about Matt was he was somebody who always wanted to learn, always a guy asking questions, hungry for knowledge,’’...

On his first day back at school, 55-year-old University of Georgia senior Kevin Butler remembered his backpack, the AC/DC lunch box his wife, Cathy, bought for him and the advice his daughter, Katie, provided free.
“I asked her what I should take to...